It was not yet dawn, it was foggy, and the morning style was cool.

Du Zhongxiao and Han Lian carried a load on their own and walked on the streets of the county town. The fog wet their hair, mixed with sweat on their faces, wet. Their steps were in a hurry, and the sound of footsteps broke the tranquility of the morning.

"Yaojiazhengdian" is located in the north of the city. Like "Qixiangju", it is one of the two large restaurants that can make wine. Unlike "Qixiangju" which is the ancestral industry of the Wu family, "Yaojiazhengdian" has been open for less than ten years, and the owner comes from another place.

Seeing that there was no one in front of the "Yaojiazheng Store", Han Jian breathed a sigh of relief and said to Du Zhongxiao beside him: "It's okay, it's okay, we came early enough that no one with wine on credit yet came."

When buying lees in a foot shop that sells wine, it will inevitably cause others to suspect. Although it is impossible to hide the wine from wine lees, the fewer people know, the better, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.

When he arrived at the restaurant, Han Lian put down his burden and said to Du Zhongxiao: "Let's take a break and wait for the restaurant to open. I recognize Manager Tang inside. He gets up early every day, so it's time to open the door after a while."

Du Zhongxiao agreed and was about to put down his burden and sit down, but when he heard a "creak", the small corner door behind him opened.

A middle-aged man came out from inside and saw Han Lian sitting there, and hurriedly said, "Shopkeeper Han, why are you sitting here? I told you yesterday that the boss deliberately ordered you not to give wine to you in the store without credit. The boss dared not to listen to the instructions? It would be useless for you to come early."

Han Lian hurriedly stood up and saluted, "The supervisor misunderstood, I am not here to buy wine today."

"What are you doing in the early morning? I see you carrying a load."

Han Lian said: "Supervisor, we want to buy the lees in your store."

Manager Tang was surprised: "What are you doing for buying wine lees? I told you that Linying County has long established regulations that wine merchants are not allowed to make vinegar, and wine lees are useless. If you have the idea of ​​buying wine lees and making vinegar, I advise you to extinguish this thought early, and the county will not be a trick."

The sale of vinegar is quite chaotic everywhere. In some places, people are allowed to buy lees to make vinegar, and there are even prefectures and counties that combine lees with lees. Linying is different because the official wine warehouse is well operated, making vinegar is a considerable income. In order to maintain the price of vinegar and ensure the ministerial money of county officials, all households are not allowed to make vinegar. In this way, the lees of the two private restaurants have become useless and can only be thrown away for nothing.

Du Lian crossed his hands: "Don't worry, supervisor, I am a peaceful and honest citizen, how could I do that forbidden thing? I have other uses for buying wine lees."

Manager Tang nodded and pondered for a while and said, "As long as you don't violate the ban, you can naturally sell it to you. However, the lees in the restaurant in this county have not been sold for many years. I don't know how much is the right price. How many do you want to buy?"

When he heard a door, Du Zhongxiao hurriedly said, "Supervisor, we also inquired yesterday. There is a restaurant selling wine lees in the city of Zhou, which is less than a cent per kilogram. Our small county in Linying naturally cannot compare with the city of Zhou. Besides, this county cannot make vinegar, and the price is a little lower. You can only buy two kilograms per penny, how about we buy two lobs?"

Manager Tang nodded. Those who run a restaurant are naturally familiar with the industry in the province. There is a restaurant in Xuzhou City selling lees and making vinegar for vinegar households. It is indeed less than a cent per pound. Du Zhongxiao and the others bought it at one cent or two pounds, and the price is reasonable.

After thinking about it, Director Tang called out two servants and ordered Han Lian and Du Zhongxiao to put two loads of wine lees on it.

Han Lian calculated the money, and before leaving, Director Tang ordered again that he must not commit jealousy and violate the ban.

The two of them carried the load and walked away staggeringly. Han Liancai said: "Super Tang is also a good person. He knows that 'Qixiangju' is difficult for my foot shop. He was afraid that he would not be able to resist breaking the ban for a while, so he repeatedly reminded him. But he didn't know that we were not making vinegar, but we wanted to make wine!"

Du Zhongxiao said: "This method is not easy to get, so no one can think of it."

As he spoke all the way, he arrived at Du Zhongxiao's home unknowingly.

It was not dawn yet, and my mother was making breakfast. My father Du Xun stood alone in front of the door, watching the sky in a daze.

When he arrived at the door, Han Lian greeted Du Xun: "Is your brother in good health?"

Du Xun hurriedly replied to the gift and knew that the owner of the Hanjiajiajiao Store was coming, and said, "My condition is almost cured in the prefecture city. I mostly returned to the county because of cold and hunger. I took a day off at home, and today I was fine."

"That's good, that's good." Han Lian said, putting down the burden on his shoulders.

Du Xun helped to remove the lees, and Han Lian said goodbye and left, but he refused to stay again.

Looking at Han Lian's leaving back, Du Xun said: "This old man is an informed and tactful person. He knows that we should not watch us steam wine. He leaves as soon as he removes the lees. He knows in his heart that he can have a close relationship."

My mother heard it aside and said with a smile: "Our family relies on braised sheep hooves for a living in the past two months. We sold it in his store for countless years. We have never made any mistakes. We are no better than other families. The Han family is excellent, so what can we trust?"

Du Xun nodded without saying anything. He was stimulated by this and his personality changed a lot. Du Xun was studying and passed on his family. Before entering Beijing, Du Xun was very proud of his childhood reading poetry and books, and he was quite pretentious. After failing the exam, he became a serious illness and wandered around several times before the life and death. What he thought was very different from before.

Everyone who is studying is self-pretentious, especially after the trial, they all want to go to Beijing for a gold medal list, and then change their destiny. When they really enter the capital, they see countless scholars who are like themselves, and then read articles written by others, they realize that they are frogs in the well. Each Jinshi list has the most awards from Kaifeng Prefecture. In addition to the gathering of talents in the world, the scholars there are also an important reason for the broad vision. Juren like Du Xun, who are naturally not inferior in knowledge, and the intention of the article is not as good as others.

After this great disaster, Du Xun understood that the same result would be the same when he took the exam a few more times. Unless he left his hometown and went to a place where talents were concentrated in two Beijings for a few years, gained more knowledge and made up for the shortcomings he had learned before. Otherwise, he would have no hope in this life of the imperial examination.

Studying, taking exams, and having sex all require money. You can't be a beggar and wandering around. Where does the money come from? Du Xun turned around and looked at the lees piled beside him, then looked at his son who was preparing in the shed, and sighed secretly. Now he is sick and can only rely on his son.

Du Zhongxiao went to the shed, lit the fire at the bottom of the stove, and started boiling water.

The most important thing in distilling liquor is the lees. All flavor and aroma come from the lees, not from the wine. If the water in the pot is replaced with ordinary water wine, you can steam the white wine. This is the skewer method used in his previous life. Steaming with cheap wine and steaming with high-end liquor is a slightly worse-grade wine. The lees that are truly good wine can be used several times, and the wine grade is reduced in turn.

But now there are not so many things to pay attention to. As long as the wine is strong enough, all flavors and aromas are secondary. Liquor is a new thing. As long as someone likes the hot feeling, he will not have to worry about selling it.

The water boiled, and my father and mother came to help and piled two or three hundred kilograms of wine lees on the steamer.

After a burning gas, the wine dripped out from the mouth of the wine.

Du Xun stepped forward and took a sip, nodded after tasting it, and then he felt relieved. The wine taste was not good, but the feeling of being hot and spicy at the mouth was good, which was the strong wine I drank yesterday.

Du Zhongxiao also tasted it and frowned and said, "This wine is too spicy and lacks softness. The wine tastes bad after steaming it. After skipping one or two pounds, try it again."

The terrible white wine has the character of some rice wine, and the taste is relatively soft, so it should not be so spicy. Du Zhongxiao also had a vague impression that the first wine that comes out when steaming is not good wine, which is difficult to sip. Relatively speaking, the first wine that comes out is too high, and it should be aged for a while and then mixed with other wines. The final wine that comes out is too low, and the quality is also unstable, and the best one is the wine in the middle.

I waited for a while and then went to pick up the wine, and it tasted much better.

It was not until afternoon that all the wine in the wine lees I bought in the morning was steamed out, about half a tank. Du Zhongxiao was confused for a moment, and it looked like about forty or fifty kilograms. More than two hundred kilograms of wine lees were produced, so much wine was produced, about five kilograms of wine lees produced one kilogram.

Seal the wine jar and see that the sun in the west has already lying on the top of the mountain.

At this time, the habit was to have two meals a day. Small families had not had the habit of having lunch yet, so Du Zhongxiao had already adapted.

I didn’t eat at noon, so I ate dinner very early, and my mother had already prepared dinner there.

Du Xun also wanted to stew a chicken to nourish his body, and Du Zhongxiao followed him to drink a bowl of chicken soup.

After dinner, Du Zhongxiao said to his parents: "Without selling wine, I won't braised sheep's hooves these days. Tomorrow morning, I will send the wine to the Hanjiajiajiao store and watch the wine in the store. Depending on the sale situation, I will decide on the future livelihood."

Du Xun said: "Even if you go to drink, we will clean up our own family."
Chapter completed!